1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a paved asphalt stripping and digging bucket apparatus, and more particularly to such a bucket apparatus which is adapted to allow pawls provided at the tip end of a bucket to be penetrated between the asphalt and its sublayer and act as a lever generating large force to effectively and positively carry out the stripping and digging of the paved asphalt.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical bucket apparatus of such type which has been conventionally known in the art is constructed in such a manner as shown in FIG. 2. More particularly, a conventional bucket apparatus indicated by reference character A' in FIG. 2 includes a bucket section a' of which the bottom surface 21' extending to digging pawls 22' is formed into a linear shape. Accordingly, when the bucket apparatus is used to strip and dig a paved asphalt below which soil lies as a sublayer, the pawls 22' of the bucket deeply enter the soil and the subsequent upward swinging of the bucket digs up only soil and fails to strip and lift the asphalt. Furthermore, when the asphalt lies on a rigid sublayer such as concrete, the pawls strike against the sublayer and are prevented from penetrating it, and the pawls only make holes in the asphalt and fail to accomplish the stripping and digging.
Thus, the conventional bucket apparatus was used to strip and dip up the paved asphalt after it is crushed to pieces of a size sufficient by using suitable means such as an air hammer.
Accordingly, it is desirable to develop a bucket apparatus as an attachment of a hydraulic soil discharge and digging machine, which is capable of allowing pawls of a bucket to be smoothly penetrated between a paved asphalt and its sublayer so as to strip and lift only the asphalt from the sublayer and permitting the lifted asphalt to be positively received in the bucket.
In general, a paved asphalt is stripped in the form of pieces each having excessive size (for example, 20-40 cm in thickness) and weight. Accordingly, the conventional bucket apparatus often fails to successfully carry the stripped paved asphalt on the center of the bucket, due to loss of the balance. Also, this often causes the stripped asphalt to partially project from the bucket. Further, this leads to the dropping of the stripped asphalt from the bucket during the transferring to transportation means such as a truck. Thus, the discharge of the asphalt by the conventional bucket apparatus must be carried out after it is crushed into small pieces, resulting in the operating efficiency being highly deteriorated.